Bob Martin and I arrived at the Brooks Ranch entrance about noon after our morning hike up the Terrell County highpoint. It was about 50 miles from the Terrell highpoint to the town of Marathon, then another 16 miles or so northeast on US-385 to the Brewster-Pecos county line and the Brooks Ranch gate, painted bright red and emblazoned with the name in foot-high iron letters. The Glass Mountain Range runs parallel to the highway to the north, about 2 air-miles in from the road. The highest point of the range lies in Brewster County; the highpoint of Pecos County is just inside the county line about a quarter-mile.

Bob and I weren't too optimistic about gaining access to hike this peak, nor were we interested in stealthing it illegally. I had tried to contact the landowner beforehand but could not get satisfactory help from the county clerk or tax assessor, neither of whom had an address or name that I could follow up on. Bob and I decided to just show up and hope we got lucky. We showed up at the gate first, then drove another 4 miles up US-385 to check out another possible entrance, which turned out to be non-viable... so back to the gate we went. The gate was unlocked, but we didn't want to chance driving in and then getting it locked with us stuck inside. So we decided that Bob would drive up the 3 miles to the ranch house while I would stay out on the highway at the gate, in case someone showed up. Bob was gone for awhile, but when he finally returned there was no news: nobody was home. We then drove up about a mile on US-385 to another house just off the road, where Bob talked with the owner, who gave Bob the landowner's name of Brooks Ranch, our first big break!

We tried calling the landowner from our cell phones but the service was spotty. So we decided to drive back to Marathon in the increasing wind and dust (yuck) and have lunch, relax, and keep trying to call the landowner. Bob's persistence paid off after 3 calls and about 2 hours: the landowner gave us the okay and told us his son would be dropping by the ranch that day to spend the night, and that we should go back up to meet him... which we did. We waited by the gate for about an hour and finally, the "son" showed up about 4 p.m. We introduced ourselves, gave him the story and he was very nice and seemed genuinely interested in our task. He let us in, past 2 more gates, and gave us directions to get us nearer the highpoint. Bob and I followed a rough 4wd road about 1.3 miles west and north past a gate to a juniper-covered bench at about elevation 4,800 feet. It was about 5 p.m. when we finally started our hike. We took flashlights in case.

The hike was cross-country. We hiked northwest through the fairly dense forest, staying high above a drainage, hiking by sight toward a visible peak at about 5,360+ feet, which wasn't our objective but served as a good reference. Once below this peak we turned west into the setting sun and very stiff wind and made our way up the rocky, juniper and grass slopes. We gained the highpoint about 6:15 after just over 1 mile of hiking with about 600 feet of gain. The wind was fierce, blowing easily at 40 mph sustained. We stayed to the lee of the peak as best we could. Bob took a couple readings and sightings, we snapped a couple photos, then we started down. We hiked again by sight in the waning light, the only mishap was Bob walking into an agave plant and getting some scratches. With about 5% light remaining, we came back out to the broad forested bench and hiked somewhat blindly back to Bob's truck. Navigation was helped by a fence and a road, neither of which we would have missed. As it was we found the fence first, then followed it to the road and Bob's truck. It was now dark. We drove back out to the ranch house and chatted with the landowner's son for a bit, then went on our way. We drove another hour-plus back through Sanderson and Dryden for tomorrow's planned attempt at Val Verde county.

My thanks to the landowner and his son for being so gracious and to Bob for being so persistent. It was much more satisfying to gain this highpoint without having to resort to a stealth, which saps all the fun out of hiking, in my opinion.